Adam McKay's Malvern roots set stage for Anchorman' movies

“Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” and the sequel, “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues,” might have been set in San Diego and New York, respectively, but Philadelphia played a key role in the history of the franchise.

Not only is former KYW-TV anchor Mort Crim the chief inspiration behind Burgundy (according to star Will Ferrell) but writer/director Adam McKay initially intended to set and shoot the ’70s-era film in the City of Brotherly Love.

“Originally, we wanted to do ‘Anchorman’ in Philly,” said McKay, who grew up in Malvern. “At one point, I had Ferrell fly out and we did a three-day tour of Philly. We looked at all of the news stations. And, of course, I took Will for cheesesteaks and we got beers at some old, Frank Rizzo-era bars.

“We wandered around. We had a grand old time. But we couldn’t get the movie made right away. And then, when we could get it made, we couldn’t come to Philly because it cost too much.”

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Even though McKay and company wound up shooting the first flick in Los Angeles (which doubled for San Diego), the filmmaker said those early meetings with Philly anchors like Larry Kane were invaluable sources of information.

“We asked all of these anchors for their best stories about what it was like broadcasting the news in the ’70s,” said McKay. “We wanted to know what the social life was like and the vibe in the office. We wanted to know about the parties. And we wanted to know how these guys got scoops and if anyone fought them for the scoops.

“What we learned as we kept going is that the stories got crazier and crazier, even crazier than what we imagined.”

McKay eventually took all of those crazy stories and put them together in “Anchorman,” a 2004 comedy about news reader Ron Burgundy (Ferrell) and his Channel 4 news team, including womanizing reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), dim-witted weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) and sports guy Champ Kind (David Koechner).

For the sequel, opening Wednesday, Ron, Brian, Brick and Champ are back for more shenanigans. They’re off the air in San Diego and working for a 24-hour news channel in New York City called GNN.

Set a few years after the first film, “Anchorman 2” finds Ron and his guys reluctant to change with the times.

“Ron is still a jerk,” said McKay. “He’s a giant a- - - -. He’s embarrassingly full of himself, totally clueless. But he does take a baby step — not a full step — toward integrity at the end of the (sequel).”

McKay said “Anchorman 2” is set in 1980 for a very good reason.

“It’s around that time that a lot of laws (regarding TV) were changed,” noted McKay. “They got rid of the Fairness Doctrine, and they didn’t enforce laws against monopolies, which allowed single companies to own a lot of news outlets. The news just changed. (A friend of mine) said that when the news divisions were folded into the entertainment divisions, that was the end of news. It all became about ratings.”

Needless to say, Ron Burgundy fits in well at GNN, where he reports on bad weather and car chases and other non-news stories. “How fun is it to make Ron Burgundy the cause of all the stuff we’re watching today?” said McKay.

In the first film, Burgundy and his guys had their chauvinistic notions of the world upended by female news anchor Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate, who reprises her role in the sequel). For the follow-up, the boys discover, much to their surprise, that not only is their boss (Meagan Good) a woman, but she’s black.

“These guys don’t handle change well,” said McKay. “So we looked at that time period — 1979, 1980 — and asked what are the big changes? And one of the big things that happened was the mainstreaming of African-American culture. Michael Jackson was huge, Magic Johnson was revitalizing the NBA and hip-hop was starting to get big.

“We thought it would be so much fun to have Ron deal with a strong African-American woman who’s sharp and smart and educated and beautiful. There’s no way Ron Burgundy is equipped to handle that.”

When the first “Anchorman” opened in 2004, it grossed a respectable $75 million, but fell short of blockbuster status. Then, an unusual thing happened. The film took off on DVD and began its journey to becoming a bona-fide cult phenomenon. McKay said it was around Halloween 2007 that he first became aware of “Anchorman’s” rebirth. When he took his kids out trick or treating, he noticed adults dressed as Ron Burgundy.

“I called up Will to tell him and he said, ‘I just saw 10 people dressed as Ron Burgundy, too.’ I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this is strange.’ Something is happening here.”

Not long afterward, McKay and Ferrell began spit-balling ideas for a sequel. They knew they had enough material for a follow-up, but the budget became a stumbling block.

After being turned down a number of times by Paramount, McKay and Ferrell decided to make “Step Brothers 2” instead. But as they were pulling that project together, all anyone wanted to talk about was “Anchorman 2.”

“We had given up on ‘Anchorman 2,’ but the thing that turned it around was that every single person I told about ‘Step Brothers 2’ said the same thing, which was, ‘Oh, you’re doing that because you couldn’t do ‘Anchorman 2.’

“I told Ferrell that this was going to be a drag, to hear that the whole time. He said, ‘I don’t care.’ But I told him, ‘I kinda do care.’ So we decided to take one more run at ‘Anchorman 2’ and went to check with Paramount one last time. I had to make sure no stone was unturned.”

As luck would have it, the studio had another project fall through and needed a ready-to-go project for December 2013. They agreed to up the budget a bit, and the sequel was on. No one was happier than Ferrell, who counts Burgundy as his favorite character.

“Will gets the joke to his toes,” said McKay. “He understands Ron’s pomposity. He is also a polished performer so he gets that part of Ron, too. He really inhabits this role. He’s done a lot of great characters, but this is probably his best.”

Growing up in Malvern, McKay was always a comedy nut. But he began to get serious about being funny during his senior year in high school.

“In 1986, the comedy boom really started to hit,” he recalled. “They started opening up all of these comedy clubs in Philly. And I remember I went to see Jay Leno, Richard Lewis and Eddie Murphy at the Valley Forge Music Fair.

“That’s when it occurred to me that I should maybe try some of the open mic nights. I just started doing it. I wasn’t good right away. I bombed, but I loved the world.”

After spending some time in Chicago, where he founded the Upright Citizens Brigade improv outfit, McKay netted a dream job as a writer for “Saturday Night Live,” where he met Ferrell. The pair hit it off immediately and have subsequently collaborated on many of Ferrell’s best films, including “Talladega Nights” and “The Other Guys.”

McKay credits Philadelphia with shaping his sense of humor. “Living in the city when I went to Temple was a huge thing for me,” said the filmmaker. “I got exposed to so many movies I’d never have seen otherwise. And Philly is such a diverse city so I met all kinds of people.”

For his next project, McKay hopes to team up with another Philadelphia hero, Will Smith, for a remake of “Uptown Saturday Night,” the Sidney Poitier/Bill Cosby comedy.

“I said to Will, ‘why don’t we go back to Philadelphia and shoot this?’ and he said, ‘Hell, yeah.’ But it’s not up to us. We’re not the ones putting up the money. But I’d love to come back.”

Also on the horizon for McKay is “Anchorman 3,” which would follow Ron and the boys into the 1980s and beyond.

“We’ll see how it feels in a year or two after the movie comes out and hits DVD and cable,” said McKay. “If (fans) keep asking for it, then we’ll do the same thing we did before, which was sit down and go, ‘What is the next chapter of the story?’ We already have some loose ideas but it’s up (to the fans) at this point.”

About the Author

Amy Longsdorf is a freelance writer who got hooked on movies after catching "The Godfather" on the big screen. She is a weekly contributor to The Mercury's Sunday Living Section writing entertainment features and DVD reviews. She graduated from Cedar Crest College in Allentown with a degree in communications and has written for People Magazine, The New york Daily News, The Toronto Star, Philadelphia Weekly and The Camden Courier Post. She contributed to "Videohound's Groovy Movies:Far Out Films of the Psychedelic Era." Reach the author at movieamy@aol.com
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